Article in See magazine on Ville de Québec's recent deployment in support of UN World Food Program.
http://www.seemagazine.com/article/news/news-main/food0129/
Eating In A War Zone
Cmdr. Chris Dickinson says guarding UN food ships on their way into Somalia was his "best mission"
Published January 29, 2009 by Angela Brunschot in News
Food Protection | Cmdr. Chris Dickinson puts o his anti-flash gear as his ship nears Mogadishu.
Few lights flickered over the water from the Somalian port city of Mogadishu as Cmdr. Chris Dickinson kept watch in darkness from the safety of the Canadian warship Ville du Quebec. Aside from a string of beacons marking the seaport, all he could see was the occasional vehicle’s taillight in the city of about a million people. In the blackness of the Indian Ocean, he felt as if he were on another planet.
He had left Halifax on July 17, heading to the Mediterranean for a NATO counter-terrorism mission under the command of a Spanish admiral. But he was soon ordered to the east coast of Africa, where from Aug. 8 to Oct. 22, 2008, he took 20 trips across the equator from Kenya to Somalia. His mission was to keep modern-day pirates away from the precious cargoes of food carried by 10 freighters. His reward would not be a king’s ransom, but rather the satisfaction of seeing daily sustenance delivered to suffering people in need.
“We actually saw the ships getting into Mogadishu, and the food being turned over to African Union troops,” he says. “It was the best mission I’ve ever done.”
The 45-year-old, who is currently in Ottawa for debriefing, says few military missions offer that kind of personal reward.
In the Mediterranean, where he chased possible terrorists, crews on the ships don’t see the payoff, he says, and any military benefit might not be seen for 10 years. But in Somalia, he felt an almost immediate sense of accomplishment.
The United Nations Food Program has operated in Somalia since the 1960s, and has recently increased its aid in response to continued civil war, drought, inflation, and displacement. The organization expects to feed 2.4 million people on average each month in 2009.
The UN asked Canada for assistance in escorting food ships because of the escalating pirate problem. In the same area, five ships carrying food were attacked between 2005 and 2007.
Ashore, the situation is just as bad. Ibrahim Hussein Duale, a Somali food monitor with the UN, was shot and killed by gunmen while administering food at a school on Jan. 6. Two days later, another Somali aid worker, Mohamud Omar Moallim, was killed in a refugee camp northwest of the city while distributing food. Two other UN aid workers have been killed since August 2008. Somalia has not had a stable government since the early 1990s.
“It simply wasn’t safe for our food to be shipped into Somalia,” UN spokeswoman Julie Marshall says. “We needed someone to protect us, and the Canadian navy stepped up.”
Dickinson says these pirates are not like Johnny Depp and his crew in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. They are generally fisherman. The boats are similar to the ones Canadians would take out on a lake for an afternoon of sport fishing, except that these vessels have very powerful engines and venture out far from the coast. The boats also fire rocket-propelled grenades and carry machine guns.
The beans, corn, salt, and yellow, reinforced corn-soya blend the UN distributes isn’t the pirate’s main target, Marshall says, but rather the vessel and its crew.
Dickinson and the Ville du Quebec served primarily as a deterrent to the pirates. Only one of the food ships, the As Salaam, was attacked during the mission. The attack came at night, when the Ville du Quebec had been temporarily called away. Dickinson sent the ship’s helicopter out first as it raced to the As Salaam’s aid. He figures the helicopter searchlight scared the pirates off, because they were gone by the time he arrived and he was glad to avoid battle.
“You have to put yourself in their shoes,” he says. “These folks are starving. It’s a very poor country and they are trying to eke out a living — even if it is illegal.”
Members of the European Union have taken over the task of escorting the UN food ships into the port of Mogadishu, but the UN has made a general request for military escorts.
“I’m too low down the chain of command to make any judgments on that,” says Dickinson, who would like to do similar mission in the future. “It’s certainly something that’s being discussed. People have realized the importance of this kind of mission.”
http://www.seemagazine.com/article/news/news-main/food0129/
Eating In A War Zone
Cmdr. Chris Dickinson says guarding UN food ships on their way into Somalia was his "best mission"
Published January 29, 2009 by Angela Brunschot in News
Food Protection | Cmdr. Chris Dickinson puts o his anti-flash gear as his ship nears Mogadishu.
Few lights flickered over the water from the Somalian port city of Mogadishu as Cmdr. Chris Dickinson kept watch in darkness from the safety of the Canadian warship Ville du Quebec. Aside from a string of beacons marking the seaport, all he could see was the occasional vehicle’s taillight in the city of about a million people. In the blackness of the Indian Ocean, he felt as if he were on another planet.
He had left Halifax on July 17, heading to the Mediterranean for a NATO counter-terrorism mission under the command of a Spanish admiral. But he was soon ordered to the east coast of Africa, where from Aug. 8 to Oct. 22, 2008, he took 20 trips across the equator from Kenya to Somalia. His mission was to keep modern-day pirates away from the precious cargoes of food carried by 10 freighters. His reward would not be a king’s ransom, but rather the satisfaction of seeing daily sustenance delivered to suffering people in need.
“We actually saw the ships getting into Mogadishu, and the food being turned over to African Union troops,” he says. “It was the best mission I’ve ever done.”
The 45-year-old, who is currently in Ottawa for debriefing, says few military missions offer that kind of personal reward.
In the Mediterranean, where he chased possible terrorists, crews on the ships don’t see the payoff, he says, and any military benefit might not be seen for 10 years. But in Somalia, he felt an almost immediate sense of accomplishment.
The United Nations Food Program has operated in Somalia since the 1960s, and has recently increased its aid in response to continued civil war, drought, inflation, and displacement. The organization expects to feed 2.4 million people on average each month in 2009.
The UN asked Canada for assistance in escorting food ships because of the escalating pirate problem. In the same area, five ships carrying food were attacked between 2005 and 2007.
Ashore, the situation is just as bad. Ibrahim Hussein Duale, a Somali food monitor with the UN, was shot and killed by gunmen while administering food at a school on Jan. 6. Two days later, another Somali aid worker, Mohamud Omar Moallim, was killed in a refugee camp northwest of the city while distributing food. Two other UN aid workers have been killed since August 2008. Somalia has not had a stable government since the early 1990s.
“It simply wasn’t safe for our food to be shipped into Somalia,” UN spokeswoman Julie Marshall says. “We needed someone to protect us, and the Canadian navy stepped up.”
Dickinson says these pirates are not like Johnny Depp and his crew in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. They are generally fisherman. The boats are similar to the ones Canadians would take out on a lake for an afternoon of sport fishing, except that these vessels have very powerful engines and venture out far from the coast. The boats also fire rocket-propelled grenades and carry machine guns.
The beans, corn, salt, and yellow, reinforced corn-soya blend the UN distributes isn’t the pirate’s main target, Marshall says, but rather the vessel and its crew.
Dickinson and the Ville du Quebec served primarily as a deterrent to the pirates. Only one of the food ships, the As Salaam, was attacked during the mission. The attack came at night, when the Ville du Quebec had been temporarily called away. Dickinson sent the ship’s helicopter out first as it raced to the As Salaam’s aid. He figures the helicopter searchlight scared the pirates off, because they were gone by the time he arrived and he was glad to avoid battle.
“You have to put yourself in their shoes,” he says. “These folks are starving. It’s a very poor country and they are trying to eke out a living — even if it is illegal.”
Members of the European Union have taken over the task of escorting the UN food ships into the port of Mogadishu, but the UN has made a general request for military escorts.
“I’m too low down the chain of command to make any judgments on that,” says Dickinson, who would like to do similar mission in the future. “It’s certainly something that’s being discussed. People have realized the importance of this kind of mission.”
